Payment arrangements

This guidance concerns both individual and corporate taxpayers.

If you encounter temporary financial difficulties, you can ask for an extension of time to pay your taxes.

The Tax Administration can grant you a payment arrangement if the legal requirements for it are fulfilled. However, an arrangement will not be granted if extended payment time is not necessary for the accrual of tax revenue. When the arrangement is in force, you must pay the interest that accrues on the tax during the period after its original due date.

The requirements for a payment arrangement

For a payment arrangement to be made, it is required that

you have no taxes undergoing recovery by an enforcement authority

you have filed all tax returns

if you have been on a payment plan previously, you have paid up all the amounts

Note: If you have claimed for a review of your tax assessment (such as a tax adjustment), we recommend that instead of a payment arrangement, you ask us for a stay of enforcement. If the imposed prepayment is too high, you may seek to have it adjusted.

However, if the tax in question is a back tax (jäännösvero; kvarskatt), you cannot request a payment arrangement until the tax assessment has been finished for the year. For individual taxpayers, the year's tax assessment process is officially closed on October 31 the year after the tax year. The taxable year is the calendar year for individuals. For corporate taxpayers, the assessment closes 10 months after the last day of the calendar month when the corporation's accounting period had ended.

If the taxpayer is a private individual, the request must either be made in person or by an agent who has a letter of authorization. If you request a payment arrangement on someone else's behalf, you need a letter of authorization.

If the taxpayer is a business, a person who has the right to sign for the company can make the request, and an agent who has especially been authorized to do so can also do so – the letter of authorization must be presented.

If the unpaid taxes are those of a deceased person or if they are the taxes of an estate, a shareholder of the estate who is authorized to manage its affairs can ask for the payment plan; he or she must have a letter of authorization signed by all the other shareholders. The shareholders may also give such a letter of authorization to someone outside the estate.

Payment arrangements in practice

The Tax Administration sends you a payment plan, which you must follow when paying. You also receive instructions for payment. The Tax Administration will also send you a letter in the case that the request is not granted. Information on payment arrangements is also delivered to the taxpayer's MyTax if the arrangement concerns self-assessed taxes, corporate income tax, inheritance tax and gift tax.

A payment arrangement does not change the amount of any late-payment interest. Even if the due date of a tax is pushed forward, the interest calculation will still stay in force; and the interest period begins on the day that comes after the original due date and continues up to the date when the tax is paid. For 2018, the interest rate is 7%.

You must pay all the instalments within your payment arrangement by their respective due dates. Follow the payment instructions. Any self-assessed taxes not covered by the payment plan must be reported and paid in the usual way as instructed. No changes can be made later to the length of the payment plan or to the amounts of the installments. However, you may them pay up faster if you can.

When an arrangement is in force, the Tax Administration will refrain from sending the taxes to the enforcement authority for recovery. Similarly, when it is in force, the validity of a company's registration with the Prepayment Register will not be cancelled, a tax debt covered by the arrangement will not be shown in the Tax Debt Register and not submitted for public disclosure on the protest list.

Lapse of the payment arrangement

A payment arrangement is declared void, if

the taxpayer fails to keep up with the scheduled payment plan

the taxpayer builds up some new tax debt

the taxpayer fails to submit Self-Assessed Tax Returns

The Tax Administration will inform you by letter if the payment arrangement must be declared void. In these circumstances, the Tax Administration will also send the owed taxes to the enforcement authority for collection, and any unpaid VAT, withholding, and employer’s health insurance contributions may be reported for public disclosure on the Protest List. If the taxpayer is a business, the unpaid debts can also be published in the Tax Debt Register. The Tax Administration will not proceed to create a new payment plan for the amounts remaining unpaid.

Impact of a payment arrangement on tax refunds

If you are to receive a tax refund during the period when the payment arrangement is valid, it is set off against your tax liabilities within the payment arrangement.